2007 Basilan beheading incident

showing the location of Payao. On June 10, 2007, the Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was kidnapped in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay province. His captors were believed to be either renegade MILF members or Abu Sayyaf. His captors released photographs of Bossi that showed him to be alive and well, but they failed to negotiate a solution with the Philippine government. Early operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were concentrated on Zamboanga Sibugay, in the belief that the captors had not left the province. Bossi survived the kidnapping, after being freed on 19th July, 2007. ==Operations in Basilan==

showing the location of Tipo-Tipo. On July 10, 2007, according to MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, violence broke out at Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, a known Moro region, when Marines entered the town. Lieutenant Col. Ariel Caculitan, spokesman for the Philippine Marines, said the death toll of the Marines was 23 (some document say the location of the encounter was at Al-Barka The official government death toll was 14, although Philippine newspapers says 23 soldiers were dead on the Marines' side. ==Reaction==

Matthew Lussenhop, United States press attaché in Manila, remarked that "It's a tragic incident. The United States embassy condoles with the families of killed, and wounded soldiers although it's still not clear to us what really happened". ==References==